Cleared of Child Porn Charges, One Journeyman Cop's Suing the Officer He Says Set Him Up

​In his two decades in law enforcement, Michael Meissner's made the rounds of small Texas towns. From Crandall to Caddo Mills, he's worked in 18 police departments in the last 20 years, according to a January story in The DallasMorning News.

As detailed there, and in a suit filed October 29 in federal court in Dallas (read the whole thing after the jump), that professional history got a lot more interesting in September last year, when a tactical unit of Combine police officers stormed his Arlington home, arrested him on a slate of charges -- including promotion of prostitution and possession of child pornography -- and hauled him off to the Dallas County Jail, bail set at $1.5 million.

A week later, the charges were all dropped, and he went free; within months, Combine's police chief had resigned and another officer who spearheaded the investigation, John Hoskins, was out on medical leave.

Meissner says the whole ordeal was just the latest of Hoskinss' plays to embarrass him in public -- like this headline from a since-removedStar-Telegram story: "Former police chief posed as woman to solicit nude photos from boys, police say." It's also just one of many incidents in a wild, meandering tale that's unfolded since Meissner beat out Hoskins for the police chief job in Caney City.

Stopping by Unfair Park HQ Monday, Meissner said he can't fathom why Hoskins carried such a grudge, but it's played out in series of allegations of wrongdoing spanning both men's short stints in police agencies around the state. It all looks to have peaked since the raid on Meissner's home last year, and months later, Meissner wants to make sure Hoskins leaves it there. "He took his shot, and he missed," Meissner says.

Reached by phone last week, Hoskins says he hasn't seen the suit yet, but he knew it was a possibility. "It'll probably be put to bed pretty quick," he says. "I'm not concerned about it at all."